The Pros and Cons of Buying an Existing Domain Name

Building a portfolio of Internet domains is like owning virtual real estate. Many of the same considerations which come into play when buying physical property apply to purchasing aged domains. An established domain can be an instant source of traffic and revenue, but the name itself can be problematic for developers. These are a few things you should think about before taking over an existing domain.

How the Domain Name Affects SEO and Sales

Let's hope that you are setting your sights on domains that are already ranking well. The name of the domain could play a role in how well the site ranks in Google. Having a primary keyword as part of the domain is always helpful, but sometimes it can also be awkward.

For example, let's say that you have purchased cheapweddingphotos4newlyweds.com because your research has determined that the site gets about 20,000 visitors a month. The primary keyword phrase that you want to rank for is cheap wedding photos. You can load this domain with valuable content, clean it up, and probably get it on page one of Google with some hard work. The domain name contains your keyword phrase, and that makes things easier.

But, what about converting visitors to valuable leads? This domain name is a bit on the spammy side. It might also indicate a lack of professionalism. Cheap is probably not the best word to use when trying to sell bridal photos. It can be too easily associated with poor quality. In this case, the domain name might actually be working against what you are trying to achieve.

This presents a conundrum. You want to maintain the visibility and ranking of the domain because it is getting a lot of traffic. At the same time you don't want to discourage possible sales. One answer might be using a 301 redirect to steer visitors to another domain with a more acceptable name. You can build the new site to resemble the aged one. Just make sure you enable redirects for each individual page. Don't have each page of the aged domain redirect to the home page of the new site. This can destroy the older site's Google rank. For more information click here https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/8b6aj5/boughtwebsitehorribledomainname/.